A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,

Click here to listen to this sermon. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:3–6). Cindy, Erica, Chris, Craig, Nick, other family members and friends of Bart: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Well, it appears that death has kept its perfect record intact. God had warned the first man and woman to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat of it,

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace to the nations; His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double” ( Zechariah 9:9–12). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! People caught in the despair of bondage have at least two questions. First, does God have the power to free us? Second, is God compassionate enough to free us? In Zechariah 9, the prophet answers both

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Mark Allen Powell tells this story in his book, Loving Jesus : I once saw a teenager at a shopping mall wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is for Losers.” At first I thought this was a cynical put-down of Christianity on the part of some adolescent who’d decided he was too cool to be associated with religion. Then I noticed the shirt had a Bible reference in parentheses beneath its bold statement. It was actually a Christian T-shirt, witnessing to the gospel. Of course! Jesus is for losers, not against them. Jesus came into this world to dine with outcasts and misfits and to proclaim good news to the disadvantaged, the neglected, the marginalized, and the abused. Tax collectors, harlots, Samaritans, lepers ... losers, all. Jesus is for them. [i] To say Jesus is for